“Elaine Durbach is a writer, editor and photographer.”

In her first two novels, Roundabout and the sequel, LAF - Life After Felix, Elaine Durbach has drawn on over four decades as a journalist, interviewing people in South Africa and the United States. The result is stories that combine the human dynamics and social forces that have fascinated her in both societies.

Born in what is now Zimbabwe, she grew up in Zambia, Lesotho and South Africa. In 1978 she won a World Press Institute Fellowship that brought her to the United States. She returned to serve as New York correspondent for South Africa’s Morning Group newspapers, and then, while freelancing, worked periodically for the United Nations Department of Public Information. She wrote for the New Jersey Jewish News for 15 years, and served as Bureau Chief of its Central NJ edition, winning three New Jersey Press Association awards for her profiles.

Elaine Durbach is also the author of two non-fiction books, With Mixed Feelings – a study of life during Apartheid in the mixed-race areas of Cape Town, and The Wild Realms – an overview of South Africa’s different geographic regions. Two other novels are in the pipeline.

She lives in Maplewood, NJ, with her husband Marshall Norstein and their son Gabriel. She continues to write articles for various periodicals and edits books and articles for other writers, when not taking photographs, drawing, or making jewelry.